# No direct personal insults or "flaming" in great debates

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-personal-insults-or-flaming-in-great-debates/210240>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [October 29, 2003, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-personal-insults-or-flaming-in-great-debates/210240 "2003-10-29T15:21:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

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**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-personal-insults-or-flaming-in-great-debates/210240/3 "2004-04-13T02:25:16Z")

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Do not say or imply that your fellow posters achieve sexual gratification or soil themselves in glee/distress due to recent news reports, politcal icongraphy, contemplation of ideological positions, etc. In fact, if you’re going to discuss someone’s bowels or genitalia at all, it better be DIRECTLY relevant to the debate at hand.

I mean, GEEZ. It’s disgusting and adds nothing to the debate, and I am somewhat dismayed I even have to explicitly make a rule against this practice, but what was once a vanishingly rare occurance is now getting ickily prevalent.

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